Vitamin calendar



Oct. 9, 1962 R. B. STERN ET AL VITAMIN CALENDAR Filed Oct. 2, 1958SEPTEMBER SEPTEMBER 8 25 IF|G.4

JNVENTORS: RUTH B. STERN and HARMOND s. HARVEY United States PatentHarmond S. Harvey, 712 Saw Mill Brook Parkway, Newton, Mass.

Filed Oct. 2, 1953, Ser. No. 764,813 2 Claims. (Cl. 20678) Thisinvention relates to a new article of commerce, namely, an arrangementfor simultaneously storing and displaying vitamins or similarsmall-dosage foods or medicines in such a manner as to readily permitand control appropriate daily dosages.

If a person attempts to use an ordinary calendar or calendar pad toaccurately control the intake of his smalldosage foods or medicines, thenumber of separate operations required for effective control creates aconsiderable possibility of error. Thus, if it is desired by the personthat he take one vitamin capsule a day, he might accomplish this bymaking a note on his calendar pad to take a capsule. He would then findhis separate package of vitamin capsules or candies and swallow one.However, he would then have to indicate on his calendar pad that he hadactually taken one for the record to be complete. If he fails to performany one of these three operations he may be uncertain later in the daythat he actually took it. 'In other words, the pressure and complexityof modern life makes it increasingly diflicult to have an accuratememory of small routine acts.

Further, vitamins or vitamin-containing-food are essential for children.There is no simple device for a child to insure the intake of uniformdosages. It is for this reason that a substantially fool-proof device isdesirable to control the consumption of required or desired smalldosagefoods or medicines.

One object of this invention is to provide a novel, reliable device foruniform intake of relatively small portions of foods or medicines, suchas vitamin capsules or units of vitamin candy.

Other objects and advantages of this invention will appear from thespecification and claims which follow.

The present invention comprises generally a plurality of individualdosages of food or medicine sealed in standard size containers andpositioned in a cooperating display holder. Each of the dosage units isclearly marked serially with a different number corresponding to the dayof the month. When these units are positioned in cooperable form withthe display-holder, there is clear vision of the unit for the particularpresent day of the month, which when removed indicates the nextsucceeding exposed unit.

In this manner, when the particular numbered daily unit has been removedfrom its display-holder, the user, even if a child, can clearly see thatno other dosage is required until the next day.

Two preferred embodiments of this invention are illustrated in thedrawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a view of vitamin candy sealed in a transparent film.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a fiat holder embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 3 is a cross section along line 3-3 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a top view of a box holder embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 5 is a front view of FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 is a longitudinal transverse section along line 6-6 of FIG. 4.

Referring now to FIGURES 1, 2, 3, there is provided a backing sheet 11which has a month space 12 near the top and a plurality of parallelhorizontal rails 13 attached to the backing sheet. The rails form withthe sheet opposing horizontal slots or grooves 14 which are cooperablewith identical rectangularly shaped units 15 of scaled plastic film eachcontaining a single dosage of vitamin candy. On the upper rail 16 oradjacent thereto are equally spaced markings of the days of the weekforming column headings. Each unit 15 has a d fferent clearly visiblenumber marked on it, beginning with the numeral one and ending with thelast day of the month in question. Each of the units 15 is slidablebetween adjacent rails and can be removed in order, one at a time,usually from the left. The month space 12 1s registrable with a printedmonth strip 17 coated with pressure sensitive adhesive so that it can bereadily changed. The calendar is thus a permanent device requiring onlythat new serially numbered units be inserted at the beginning of eachmonth and a new month strip aflixed.

In the form illustrated in FIGURES 4, 5, and 6 there is a hollowcontainer 21 of substantially rectangular cross-section, containingunits 22 which are kept urged forward by a longitudinal spring 23. Theunits are substantially similar to those described in the firstembodiment as number 15. The front 24 of the box has an opening 25slightly smaller than the width and length of the unit but in additionhas an offset opening 26 which permits the user to pinch one corner ofthe exposed unit and remove it from the box, thus immediately exposingthe unit with the succeeding number. The container is provided on itsouter surface with removable means 27 for identifying a specific month,as shown on cover 28.

While the preferred embodiments of our invention have been described indetail, it will be understood that we do not wish to be limited to theparticular construction set forth, since various changes in the form,material, proportions, and arrangement of parts, and in the details ofconstruction may be resorted to without departing from the spirit andscope of the invention, or destroying any of the advantages contained inthe same heretofore described and defined in the following claims.

We claim:

1. A display holder comprising in combination a control calendardispensing means and a plurality of sequentially numbered dispensibleunits, said calendar comprising a backing sheet imprinted in a tabularform of weekly rows covering a period of one month; said dispensingmeans comprising pairs of horizontal rails afiixed to and extending fromsaid sheet above and below said rows forming opposing slots forpositioning, sliding, moving and removing said units; each of said unitscomprising a sealed container enclosing a selected dosage of material tobe consumed and adapted to be positioned between and to slide freely insaid horizontal slots; said display holder having removable means foridentifying a specific month.

2. A display holder having in combination a control calendar dispensingmeans and a plurality of sequentially numbered dispensible units eachcontaining a selected dosage of material to be consumed; said calendarcomprising a backing sheet imprinted in a tabular form of weekly rowscovering a period of one month; said dispensing means comprising pairsof opposing horizontal parallel rails aflixed to and extending from saidbacking sheet above and below each said row forming opposing slots; saidunits being sequentially positioned in said rows and of sufiicientlength and width to allow horizontal sliding between said rails, saidbacking sheet being pro vided with removable means for identifying aspecific month.

(References on following page) 3 4 References Cited in the file of thispatent 2,115,021 Jeffee Apr. 26, 1938 2129122 Follett Se 1. 6 1938 NITEDT PATENT 1 P 1 U S ATES S 2,147,086 Bryan Feb. 14, 1939 1,288,568 Hall1918 2,247,252 Price 1 June 24, 1941 1,479,423 Barton 1, 1924 2,877,893Volckcning at al Mar. 17, 1959 1,939,642 Barnes Dec. 19, 1933 5

